In tape handling devices it is necessary to have a reel which is "taking up," or winding, the tape which is being pulled from a supply reel. Very often, in the prior art, the take up reel and the supply reel are interchangeable, depending on which way the tape is being driven. In such an arrangement both reels are often located in one housing, a cassette, and there is no need to "start," or load, a tape onto a take up reel.
However there are some applications in the prior art where the supply reel is provided as an entity unto itself and the tape thereon is pulled therefrom by an "empty" take up reel. A film on a motion picture projector is a typical example of the last mentioned prior art arrangement. Other uses of this kind are well known. In the prior art, with such arrangements, there has always been a certain amount of human factor involved. For instance in a movie projector arrangement, the film is threaded along a group of sprocketed drivers and idlers. In some other arrangements the tape is pulled from the supply reel and "grabbed" by a vacuum port on the take up reel. In another arrangement the tape is pulled from the supply reel and hand loaded into a take up reel whereat there is a sheath, which, in response to movement of the take up reel, operates to squeeze the tape and hold it in position while the tape winds on itself.
The present arrangement provides two tape leaders which are designed to be automatically, and readily, locked, or buckled, together. In my co-pending patent application entitled, "A Mechanism for Joining Tape Leaders", Ser. No. 06/578,766, filed Feb. 13, 1984, I teach and claim a mechanism to be used with the two tape leaders described and claimed in the present patent application.